SacrificeDISCONTINUED
by Human Customs Still Elude Me
Summary: We must be one. We must defend the fools who cower in the dens. We will defend them. We will be one...forever. We will be enemies...never.
1. Obsidian Ebony and Ruby-Not All Kind

**A/N: This is set in NightClan. Read Rebellion to understand it fully.**

Look, no one asks to be a runt.

Not a runt, not hideous, not filled with the desire to kill. No one asks for those things.

But I can't accept that my daughters are beautiful, with their jet-black fur and their long tails-their eyes aren't open yet. But they're runts. I can't ignore that.

I just can't love them like the others. Like Stonekit, the broad-shouldered gray tom. Like Rubykit, the lovely red she-cat with long legs.

I haven't even named them yet.

My mate, Risingheart, tells me to kill them.

They were born in the same instant. Right after Stonekit, right before Rubykit.

I finally decide to name the identical she-kits Obsidiankit. and Ebonykit. I didn't care that their names were long and a mouthful. I didn't care that I was willing to let them starve. Just to get the two, tiny, fragile, black she-cats.

When they open their eyes, they are both a deep amber. The color was similar to gold.


	2. Ember and Emerald-Do Not Falter

**A/N: This part is set in LightningClan. Cats can have purple eyes, and slimsy means frail. I'm writing the first four chapters about different characters. There is a six moon timeskip between each.  
**

Those green eyes have haunted me since I saw them. Emerald Green. Like the stone. Exactly like the stone.

Cold like the stone. And beautiful like the stone.

That lovely gray pelt. Oh, I know I shouldn't love her. I know I shouldn't make friends. She is just so lovely. So beautiful. So grand.

But that is only in my eyes.

My eyes stray over the deep, wide scars. The limp. I'm the only one who thinks she is beautiful.

Her voice is rough, like a storm. But sometimes soft, like a chick's down. And sometimes cold, like ice. Sometimes angry, like fire.

I know everyone hates me because I'm useless. But she is kind to me. I don't know why.

I shouldn't make friends because I would die before they started fighting in a battle. I'm horrible at fighting. I can't protect, even though I want to. I'm just downright slimsy.

I shouldn't love because my parents would punish me. I'm ugly. My odd purple eyes make me ugly in the eyes of many. My gray fur tinged with ginger make me uglier, even. And then my twisted, backwards paw.

My name is the only nice thing about me save my personality.

Emberheart. Although it does imply that my heart is dying. That I'm on the spiral to being cruel.

And then one day my love walks up to me.

"Hi! You're Emberheart, right? Since no one talks to you, you probably don't know my name. I'm Emeraldeye. It's not a very nice name. I think you name is lovely. Being named after my eyes is boring, right?" She says cheerfully. Her voice is rough, but like a bit of sunshiny-rain falling on grass with a rainbow overhead. Emerald green grass.

"H-hello," I say. I wasn't expecting her to be so nice and cheerful.

"Wanna go hunting? I love hunting. I can run really fast! Do you want me to teach you how to climb?"

"Yes, thank you!" I respond.

As she leads me out, we gain the stares of many. She is respected warrior from a respected family. The descendants of Firestar and Sandstorm, they say.

"Come on!" She leads me to a big tree, and begins leading my paws to the right places.

I think I can be happy, now.


	3. Sapphire and Basalt-Do Not Trust Kindnes

**A/N; This part is set in BreezeClan. One more chapter until I get to the actual story. As you might have guessed, chapter four of the prologue will be set in StreamClan.  
**

Those siblings couldn't be more alike.

Well, they could.

They could look exactly the same, and their names could be the same.

Sapphireheart, the blue-gray she-cat with icy blue eyes. Graniteflower, the gray she-cat with the green eyes.

They are my friends. They have been since kithood.

My only friends.

They have always been distant, their eyes wandering, and that is how I know the kindness and how motherly they are is just an act. They want to be treated like royalty. Like lovely little flowers. I'm starting to hate them. We aren't really friends anymore. Now I recognize that they scorn me. Nod politely. Treat me like dirt. They talk about me behind my back. They spread rumors that I threaten them with bodily harm if they stop being my friends.

They're the criminals. But I am treated as one. I don't know how I put up with this, but I do.

Its probably because of that small she-cat, younger than me, stronger than me, and braver than me.

She is always confident.

But I know that smile is forced, and pained. I know that the innocent and kind voice is fake to hide the true sorrow. She isn't really happy.

When she was a kit. A rogue kit, I might add. When she was a kit her parents were murdered in front of her by their supposed friends.

You can't trust anyone.

But I can trust her. In moments she is alone. Sad. In her memories, she is alone. And friendless.

They have been spreading rumors like an illness about her too. Before long, both of us are shunned. Alone. Outcasts in the midst of family.

They aren't my friends anymore.

I know that my only friend in the world is now Raventalon.

Her jet-black fur and unnatural gray eyes have haunted my dreams for moons upon moons.

That scar beneath her eye is the only remainder of what happened to her. Of what now shows clearly in her now carefully blank eyes. That slightly drooping tail.

But sometimes I see it.

The bloodlust honed and waiting to be fulfilled in her eyes. In the midst of battle, that is her element.

And yet everyone looks down to her. Tries to protect her. But she doesn't need it.

She has the skills to kill.

The skills to survive.

I am Mouseclaw.

This, my friends, is why you cannot trust kindness. All kindness...some kindness is true.

I see now why Raventalon always seemed so lonely. I am lonely.

But not as lonely as her.

I pity her.

But I see she doesn't need protecting.

The world is cruel.

That's why it's so beautiful.


	4. Amber-An Owls Talon's Pierce Her Brother

**A/N; StreamClan!  
**

I walk along the riverside, my fur blowing in the gentle, cold wind. Funny, how things can be nice yet cold at the same time.

If it were earlier in the day, I would be in a patrol surrounded by friends.

My younger sister is an apprentice. I can hardly believe how old she is now. It feels like yesterday that she was born...but that day was both lovely, as the Clan was given a new warrior. But her two brothers died moments after birth.

We named them anyway-Ashenbreath and Goneheart.

Our mother is always a bit depressed. She gave them warrior names so that StarClan could know what to name them, if they aged in the stars.

I don't think StarClan will do that.

I think back to the old stories my parents unearthed and told again. I think the medicine cat before I was born told them.

I think about the dream I had the moon before. Of the first member of StarClan.

Storm. Mother of Thunderstar. That brave young tom. He still seems to protect his Clan.

I look up at the setting-sun sky, filled with the faint gleamings of stars in the velvety blackness of the coming night.

The almost-full moon shines an eerie reddish-silver in the half-light of sunset.

I stopped, and look up.

And owl soars overhead, and spots me. I am already small, and also only a young warrior, so I am afraid.

It attacks me. I hear a yowl that can only be my mother's, and those long talons pierce my side. I don't think it is deep.

I feel the weight lift off of me, and I black out.

My name is Stoneclaw. This is my story.


	5. Synesthesia

**_Obsidianpaw's POV  
_**

Obsidianpaw sighed, her eyes roving over the camp. Her clanmates shared tongues or ate the little prey there was in this harsh leaf-bare.

Of course, the runts had to break the warrior code so they wouldn't starve.

She sighed, and looked over at her sister. Twin, really.

"Oy! Obsidianpaw!" A warrior said to Ebonypaw.

"No, I'm Ebonypaw. That's Obsidianpaw."

"Whatever. -star wants to see you."

Ebonypaw stood up, leaving a pit of emptiness beside Obsidianpaw.

No matter, Obsidianpaw could always know what her sister was doing.

Ebonypaw entered the leader's den.

"Ebonypaw. It is you, I am assuming?" -star asked. H- voice sounded twisted as Obsidianpaw peered into her sister's body.

_Of course, you idiot! Wait, is that you, Obsidianpaw?"_

Obsidianpaw knew what -star wanted. - wanted Ebonypaw to leave the Clan, and of course, fall prey to the other Clans' harshest warriors.

_Yes, of course it's me. And you're me, by the way. We're switching places again. No one will tell the difference._

_Okay, okay. I'm trusting you.  
_

"No, I'm Obsidianpaw," Ebonypaw mewed apologetically.

"All right. Send me your sister," -star ordered.

Ebonypaw left the den, nodding at her sister who stood up and walked into the leader's den.

"Yes, -star?" Obsidianpaw asked innocently, her dark eyes flashing questioningly. "Oh, I know what you want. You want me to leave the Clan. You'll come looking for me in a day and you'll see if I survived. Tough luck. I'm not going."

The leader glared.

"You will not disobey my direct orders."

"Funny, I thought I was. I don't take orders from pieces of foxdung like you."

"You will obey my orders!"

"Nuh-uh."

"-, make her!"

"Oh, what a coward. Turning to your deputy to do your own work?"

-star glared, h- dark eyes growing darker by the second.

"Kill her if she resists. She deserves it. Make her. She will undoubtedly become deputy after you if she survives, -."

The deputy shoved Obsidianpaw out of camp, showing no mercy. Like a tempest, raging in the night.

A pattern of stones by the camp in the dim outline of a star caught Obsidianpaw's attention, but she was pulled along like a rose petal in a gale by the tempest of a deputy.

Obsidianpaw realized with a jolt that she only knew her and her sister's names.

_Ebonypaw! Ebonypaw, what's the leader's name?_

_Beats me. I only hear Star, and gray before that._

_So Graystar?_

_Nah, nah. When I hear a name that isn't star, or yours, I see gray. When I hear your name, instead I see black. When I eat, I hear the sound of pawsteps._

_Me too!_

"Hey. You brat. stay outta the territory tonight. I don't wanna have ta kill ya."

Obsidianpaw nodded, and stepped over the scent line into the Unclaimed Territory.

"By the way, my dear deputy, I'm not who you think I am."

**Short chapter. Writers block. The main characters in this Clan have ****Synesthesia.**


	6. Beautiful

_**Graniteflower**_

"Are you feeling alright?"

Raventalon turned around, and forced a pained smile.

"I'm fine, Mouseclaw," she said without any truth in her voice.

Mouseclaw cocked his head. "Are you sure?"

"I'm sure."

"Oh, she's just going loony from me telling the Clan the truth," Graniteflower boasted.

The two cats spun around.

Graniteflower emerged from a nearby bush, looked cruelly delighted.

Sapphireheart emerged after her.

Both sickened Raventalon.

"Mouseheart. Come on."

She turned around and ran through the gorse, her sleek black tail streaming after her as her long legs stretched to pull her forward and away from the torture that had been haunting her for so long...

"Mouseheart!"

She slowed to a halt as the brown tom caught up, panting.

"Please don't run ahead like that. You unnerve everyone."

"Sorry," Raventalon said quietly. She knew that everyone was confused by her jumping ability, fighting ability, and quick running.

Raventalon turned her eyes to the sky.

"I wonder what it's like to fly." Mouseheart said from behind her, voicing her thoughts.

Raventalon turned around, attempting to seem as happy as she could be.

"Then let us go as high as we can and see the sky in her massive fullness as she touches hands with the earth!"

Mouseheart relaxed slightly.

"Sure!"

Together, they ran through the heather, as the two sisters of woe watched Mouseheart and Raventalon run past them, frowning at the cheerful almost-siblings.

Of course, Raventalon watched out of the corner of her eye as the sisters walked off, conversing in low tones as they headed to camp to spread more rumors.

At long last, they reached the highest hill.

They stood there on top, staring up at the gray sky scudded with low storm clouds, showing tiny gaps of the watery blue sky and the bleak sunlight shining down in lightless, glum efforts of brightness.

"It's beautiful."

Mouseheart looked over at Raventalon in surprise.

"What is?

Raventalon closed her eyes, still facing the sky.

"It's beautiful to be alive. To even be able to look at this bleak sky...but still, I feel that she, the sky, is losing her grip on the earth and slowly drifting away."

She opened her eyes and looked at the ground, those beautiful, unnatural gray pits of memories catching the meager sunlight and turning beautiful, shimmering silver.

He nodded, silently leaning over and licking between her ears.

Raventalon looked up again, and suddenly, only to her, the sky seemed beautiful.

She sat up as straight as she could, then stood, still looking up. Her tail swished through the clear air. Her eyes burned bright in the chill air of sun-high in leaf-bare.

"Come on. I have a bad feeling about what's going on at camp."

Together, they ran through BreezeClan territory.

When they reached camp, they were met by cold stares.

"What..." Mouseheart trailed off as deafening shrieks met their ears.

"Get them!" - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - "Torture them!" "Drive them out!"

**_"KILL THEM"_**

Chaos exploded in camp.

Raventalon fought simply. Clearly. Matching Mouseheart's every strike with a strike of her own.

"Try and actually fight, weak fox-hearted pieces of..."

Her insult was cut off as she batted another cat to the side.

And then, at a silent signal, the two cats fled from the enraged cats who had raised and protected them all their life.

Sort of.

But as the two cats ran, the Clan realized that there wasn't a scratch on any one of them.

They glanced among each other, murmuring. At long last, they came to a conclusion;

"Get Sapphireheart and Graniteflower."

As the two cats ran, they passed a distant group of silently running cats that mirrored the forest from which they came like a shadow of their dreams.

They exchanged a glance, and without a word they turned around.


End file.
